The day has come. We are here live at HP's Think Beyond event in San Francisco. There will be liveblogging on this very post you're looking at now, starting at 1 p.m. EST / 10 a.m. PST. There will be hands-on. There will be new webOS products. The hint is now "Think Big, Think Small, Think Ahead, Think Beyond." We're thinking tablets, a tiny smartphone, and perhaps two more surprises including a new version of webOS optimized for tablets. Possibly more.

So join us here in this very post (again, 1 p.m. EST / 10 a.m. PST). We'll be all up in Palm's business like you wouldn't believe, so keep it locked tight to PreCentral as we blow this thing out.

Listed all the worst-case scenarios. The first two, are for sure, but (someday) has turned into (soon) Apotheker said: “HP will stop making announcements for stuff it doesn’t have. When HP makes announcements, it will be getting ready to ship.” & "The new hardware is ready"

Look at the story below this one - they seem to be announcing two new phones beyond the Pre 2...

As far as ipad goes, the specs seem superior in some ways to ipad 1, and as you say, no one knows about ipad2 yet. Even if they don't beat every ipad2 spec, they may beat some (flash, not sure if ipad has compass, inductive charger, tap, etc.)

It's tragic when baby-geeks don't recognize a rip-off of Real Genius:
"Mitch: You know, um, something strange happened to me this morning...
Chris Knight: Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?
Mitch: No...
Chris Knight: Why am I the only one who has that dream? "

My anticipation has grown like everyone elses, but PLEASE tell me there will be at least 1 more phone other than "a tiny smartphone." I will wait to reserve judgment, but if "tiny" is all we get, it better be a SUPER smartphone.

Had my Pre replaced today, was chatting with the employees about the rumor of a docking phone+tab. Guy I was talking to said "that'd be pretty awesome". Then another guy across the store said "and two new sliders, one Pre sized and another Evo sized".

Obviously grain of salt, and all. Just wanted to put it out there in case he proves to be right tomorrow!

I hope that if any new smatphones being unveiled tomorrow makes it's way to sprint. Had my pre minus for a long time and I'm ready to retire it with a new webos product. Plus sprint didn't annoucee anything interesting at all yesterday, lets hope that hp does tomorrow.

I want to be excited about the HPalm event, I really do, but I've been disappointed too many times in the past to really expect much. Especially after Sprint's worst presentation ever. If THAT was all that sprint could come up with as their flagship phone, then I'm convinced that new devices aren't going to sprint, so I'm stuck.

Is it me, or is Precentral trying to dial down expectations for a decent phone annopuncement tomorrow? Tablets, tiny phone, new webOS, and the pre2 as the "flagship" phone. Do they know something we don't?

HP bought Palm less than 9 months ago, right. Apple is spending at least a yr engineering it's phones. Personally, I find it hard to believe that HP has had time to R&D a phone that truly can leapfrog it, WebOS notwithstanding.
Apple has done a great job of refining hardware and giving attention to detail and especially refinement. Nobody else seems to have the dedication (willingness) to go so far.

Palm may have had a killer device on the roadmap, and HP has since tweaked and improved it? But after years of let downs, I'm just jaded.

Folks - this is silly. It's less than a day from now.
All this doom & gloom talk and wild speculation is no use at all.
Whatever the plans are - disapointing, awesome or so-so - we'll know either way soon enough.

How much more freakin tiny can you get? I love my day 1 Pre, but shizazzzz, my fingers barely fit on the keyboard. I have a feeling if HP doesn't shake the ground tomorrow, a lot of people are going to be looking elsewhere. My Pre is dying and I can't wait much longer.

Maybe because the earnings report mentioned the tiniest phone? Come on guys. That has been the only thing we have heard involving phones. So it's only natural to mention it here because that is the only lead.

Worst case scenario is my Pre minus is still running fine. If I have to wait 6 months for the goodies to arrive I'll be ok with it, but would prefer to start picking up WebOS gizmos 'within weeks' of tomorrow.

Let's hope HP/Palm amaze us the way they did when they introduced the Pre in January of '09.

Does anyone know why all the Event Countdowns have a different time....or is it just me. The one on PreCentral is an hour slower than the app I downloaded to my Pre and is an hour faster than the countdown on the Palm website.

I wonder if hp Palm will start pumping out ads on tv? Sorta flood the consumer with the new stuff that will be coming out. Tired of apple, android and blackberry showing off there stuff. It's our turn hp!

I drive a truck for a living and I'm making sure I'm pulled in a parking lot with my laptop connected to my launch day Pre via freetether and watching the live-blog instead of driving and making money.

Been going back and forth working on a document and refreshing precentral the whole day. I don't think it's a sad comment of life, but more anxious and hopeful. I certainly hope there's more tomorrow that what will be available for the next few weeks. I want a roadmap for the next couple of months to a year.

I'm at work and refreshing Precentral almost every hour or so on my Sprint Pre. We are all on the same Air Craft Carrier and not boat. We all want to see webOS take off and leave the rest in the water. haha

Ok Dieter, you willing to go further out on a limb? How about a 3.7 inch or larger screen smartphone? Are you not predicting that but instead think it would be a surprise?? I'd be shocked - shocked - if Palm/HP didn't produce a phone that matches the industries best smartphone sellers over the past year - Droid, Droid X, Galaxy S, iPhone, EVO - all of which have larger screens. I can't fathom that they haven't seen the way the market has moved overwhelmingly to larger screen devices and won't move to match it. Do you not expect this??
Other items that interest me for tomorrow: Will HP announce a 7 inch tablet if it is not ready until September given the CEO's new proclamation of no more paper launches? Also, I'm curious from a technical standpoint to see what chipset from what vendor is going into the tablet and phones. I know Precentral leaked the Qualcomm spec but some other insiders have rumored Ti OMAP4, so we will see. Also want to see what tap to share is all about - my guess is that the rumored "bump" or physical touching is wrong, but rather it is via the internet.

I am so excited as well. But I still believe that HPalm will come up with a phone for all big 4 US Providers. To think beyond, you will have a single phone that would have a radio slot (ala sim card) that would support all carriers frequency. It's just going to be a matter of buying the card itself and if you choose to use GSM, then the card you would have to purchase has a SIM Slot on it. Obviously, this is all guess but that's where I would put my money on.

for all the people wondering if Sprint is getting any of these...the answer is yes. My brother works at Sprint and two nights ago his boss gave him the heads up that they were getting two new Palm devices. A smartphone and a tablet. That was all he said, no details or anything just that they were getting them. They will probably be training on them in the next two weeks.

If we get another Pre wana be "small smartphone" I will go nuts. I have been loyal and evoted to Palm for as long as I can remember, all of us have. And its time that HPalm pay us back for it. Im sick of seeing HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, etc. whip us around. I still have the pre on sprint and am dieing for a new super smartphone. I hope they mean small in the sense that it will make all other smartphones look small in comparison.

If there really is only a "small" smartphone then it better be something incredible. But still, hopefully there will be some large device made of pure awesome. Cuz unless the small phone is made of something crazy I don't imagine people are going to want to throw away their iPhones for it like Leo was suggesting.

I hope it will be something that an enterprise to SMB can build their sales/remote and IT staff around. I'd love to move my company's mobile units toward a unified ecosystem around WebOS + XenDesktop. Really hope it's not the Palm Pre 2 "Plus" ...(eek)and the Topaz would be very nice. Just hope it's not sluggish and comes with a 2 hour battery that gives you only 45 minutes of juice.

That Kyocera Echo from Sprint looks pretty cool, great idea. We all know its gonna suck since its lAmedroid. I got a Sprint Pre off ebay last month for $50, is like brand new! Should last for a while... hope tomorrow's news brings a new Sprint webOs!

All great points. The only thing I'd add is that it takes more than a few months to effectively integrate all these new acquisitions into a cohesive package, design new hardware to frame it, manufacture it, and get it out there. I think their size and reach gives them a leg up, but I think this event will be a small taste of the future of HP and webOS. This won't be the last event HP will ever put on for their mobile ecosystem, so I'm thinking that the vision of a complete ecosystem with killer hardware and software will take a bit longer. I see tomorrow's offerings more as a stepping stone until they can completely integrate everything they've acquired in the last few months.

HP is a really big company, so we should all be expecting amazing things to be announced tomorrow, such as a phone that is at least up to spec with the iPhone, a smaller slider type phone, and a tablet to be released in the next quarter. If this doesn't happen, I think we should all set ourselves on fire in protest. I say we do it at noon PST. What better way to send a message to HP that we as a community deserve better from them?

I think HP has to announce something better than the current iPhone and iPad, since the next versions of both are likely to come in a few months. If they cannot do much better on hardware, at least make sure there are great new webOS features that are hard to duplicate.

I really really hope they announce a slab or vertical slider type phone. I love WebOS but left for android because I could not stand the hardware issues with the Pre. Keeping my fingers crossed they announce a different style (or Styles) of phone

The tablets are cool, but I think it's obvious we all want a super phone. Not a teen phone, not 4 versions of a tablet, but a competitive smart phone that can at least go toe to toe with the other smart phones currently on the market. If they don't show a webOS phone with a larger screen and a front facing camera, I'm out.

I wish I could threaten HP that they better come out with a killer-super-ultra-phone or I'd abandon sHiP... but truth be told. I couldn't go to lAmdroid or any other Mobile OS-- They bore me. They Suck. It's like being in love. No matter how much she messes with you, you stay.

I did the same and I think the EVO is a much better phone than the slow pre. I just hope that Palm can get the app selection up with the Android and Apple. I still use my old Pre also as I love the OS.

The only way I'll be disappointed, is if they show a TINY talky device and that's it for phones. I can't imagine that will be the case, but I am a bit worried. We see corporations missing the mark on what they think people want way too often... SPRINT-

...pre 2 is already a sufficient "small factor phone...i wanna see a big slab phone, a kick-butt tab, and webOS desktop/peripheral integration...backed by major advertising (the masters, daytona 500, march madness)...

I took the day off today for this, it better be good as I am retired and my boss (wife) will be PO'd at me for taking my netbook to Starbucks and aquiring a table for the rest of the day.... I had to promise her a new Palm phone as we both have upgrades waiting from Sprint for sooooooo... long now I cant remember when!
If this is a good day at HP, dont forget to go outside to listen for the screams and fireworks. if not a good day at HP, then I reccomend you stay inside and avoid all the crazy Palm fanatics that will be roaming the streets of your city.....
just MHO....